This has happened before, where the person got onto the jet in a third country, landed at LHR and then the same plane continued to the USA where the body was found. I believe it was a VS flight, but could be wrong...

If the gear doesn't crush them the cold will get them... I would imagine it would be someone from a poorer nation, I rekonwould be a terrifying experience. They must have been desperate. Also doesn't give a good account of security if someone can jump on a 744...what else can they put in one??

This happens quite a few times in LA also. Last time the guy actually survived because he found a way into a warm part of the cargo from the gear bays. I'm wondering if these people know that the gear isn't pressurized.

Quoting Juventus (Reply 2):Death probably occured in London as the gear was being raised.

Not likely he got on in LHR, as there are few people who would find life so bad in the UK that they would risk this.

As I said, this has happened before on a flight from London, where the person got on in a THIRD country, the plane landed at LHR, became a new flight to the USA, but the body was not discovered until the inspection in the USA.

Quoting TransWorldSTL (Reply 6):How horrible must these peoples' living conditions be, in order for them to be desperate enough to jump in the wheel well of a plane destined for an unknown destination?

Thats what comes to my mind. Has anyone succesfully pulled of somthing like that alive? I dont even think its possible. You would think they would know that they would die.

According to the local news here in Los Angeles, the body of a male was found on BA 283, a Boeing 747-436 (G-BNLB). It was located in the right main wheel well by a pilot performing his inspection at Gate 104 of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The body was removed and the investigation began. BA 282 was then cleared and left 4 hours late for London-Heathrow.

Do Jet Stowaways Ever Survive?
The dangers of traveling beneath business class.
By Brendan I. Koerner
Updated Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003, at 2:07 PMET
For the second time in a week, police at New York's Kennedy Airport have discovered a body in the wheel well of an arriving jet. What are the hazards of traveling in an airplane's wheel well, and do any of these desperate stowaways ever survive?

The odds of survival, always slim at best, decrease in proportion to the duration and altitude of the flight. Few stowaways are equipped to handle the frigid temperatures, which can dip below minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit on some flights. The bodies of stowaways usually show signs of severe frostbite and the longer the flight, the more likely that the illicit passenger will succumb to the elements.

Others perish due to asphyxiation, as the air at high altitudes lacks sufficient oxygen and the wheel wells are unpressurized. Think of how mountaineers scaling Mount Everest are forced to carry oxygen tanks, and that peak measures shy of 30,000 feet—just below the altitude that many planes reach. The chilliness and the oxygen deprivation become more severe the higher a plane climbs, so stowaways on high-flying transoceanic voyages face the worst odds.

A third danger is the likelihood of tumbling from the wheel well prior to arrival. Landing gear is typically deployed at an altitude of around 1,500 feet, and the stowaways are given little warning. Unless they're holding onto something inside the compartment, a fatal plunge is difficult to avoid. Blackouts caused by oxygen deprivation are common, so many stowaways are likely unconscious at the crucial moment.

Few hopeful refugees attempt wheel-well arrivals every year. In 2000, for example, the FAA counted 13 such stowaways, three of whom survived. In 2001, six tried to enter the United States in such a fashion, with no survivors. In 2002, five perished and one survived. (The wheel-well survival rate since 1947 is 20.3 percent.) The death estimates may be low, as some bodies may have tumbled out into water or remote areas, never to be recovered.

There is, however, the occasional miracle case, none more fantastic than the tale of Fidel Maruhi. The Tahitian native lived through a 7-and-a-half-hour flight from Papeete to Los Angeles. When he was discovered, Maruhi's body temperature was just 79 degrees, about 6 degrees colder than what's usually considered fatal. Repatriated to Tahiti after his feat, Maruhi later said that he remembers nothing of the trip, having blacked out just after takeoff.

Last December, a Cuban refugee named Victor Alvarez Molina made it to Montreal in the wheel well of a DC-10, enduring four hours in temperatures that dropped to minus-40 F. His saving grace was a leak in a compartment pipe, which seeped out warm air. The pipe also provided him a convenient lifeline to hold onto when the landing gear deployed. Unlike Maruhi, Molina was granted refugee status and now hopes to bring his family to Canada. Presumably in more comfortable circumstances.

Regular people from a third world country don't know anything about aviation at all, let alone specific facts like pressurazion. Thats why they keep on doing it. They don't know about the danger they are about to get into.

I remember a few years ago that one guy did actually survived from a flight from Afrika to CDG, travelling in the landing gear bay. He was found suffering from hypothermy, was healed in Paris and then sent back to Afrika. The same poor guy was found dead a few weeks later in a field near CDG ! Even after having experienced it once and survived, he did attempt a second time to travel this way !! Amazing isn't it ?

Quoting TransWorldSTL (Reply 6):How horrible must these peoples' living conditions be, in order for them to be desperate enough to jump in the wheel well of a plane destined for an unknown destination?

I know that some baggage loaders or ramp agents make money out of it. Pretending that they will arrive safe in Europe, they let them access to the aircraft and jump in the gear bay for a ridiculous summ of money (ridiculous for us "rich" countries). For sure none of these guys know the condition of travelling in there and probably have no idea about pressurisation, cold or whatsoever happening in an aircraft at 35000 feet.......

Unfortunately a majority of these stowaways come from Africa, a continent so plagued by famine, war, disease and general pestilence that it's a wonder it's not literally nick-named "Hell on Earth".

Besides that however, the fact that this stowaway situation is still a problem should see 1st world countries with security concerns barring flights from countries that have this problem, at least until their apparent lapses in security are properly remedied. My chief worry here is that if people are so desperate to do this sort of thing, how hard would it be for the same sort of people, with guaranteed payments to their families from al-qaieda (or other organization) to strap themselves up with explosives as a stowaway and take down a foreign jet?

Quoting ZRHnerd (Reply 14):Regular people from a third world country don't know anything about aviation at all, let alone specific facts like pressurazion. Thats why they keep on doing it. They don't know about the danger they are about to get into.

Excellent & valid point. It will probably be found that this man was from Africa. It does prompt the question of how thorough the pre-flight inspection was at LHR, before the jet was sent on its way to LAX.

Quoting ChrisNH (Reply 23):Regular people from a third world country don't know anything about aviation at all, let alone specific facts like pressurazion. Thats why they keep on doing it. They don't know about the danger they are about to get into.

How true and how very sad. Desperation will make people do desperate things. That is why this world as a whole has to start to help the people from the under developed countries through these terrible times

Barbados, CWC soon, can't wait

25 Keego
: I saw a recent documentry with someone who had not once but twice survived this. He got on a DC-10 in Havana, Cuba (The airline escapes me) the aircr